During the past several years the increased and often frantic activity in the exploration for oil in the remote areas of the world and in its transmission from developed wells has occurred. This has involved the shipment of great quantities of pipe of a wide range of sizes and very great lengths. Some of the pipe is drilling, and other of the pipe sections are for well casing purposes or to convey the oil once it has been located. In most cases the pipe sections must arrive at their eventual point of use without bends, dents or damaged ends -- all conditions that have occurred when bundles of pipe have been shipped loose or strapped together without protective structure. In those known cases in the prior art where composite bundling has been disclosed, pipe sections have been cradled in underlying concave shoes and then capped with like but inverted non-contacting shoes and the whole fastened together. In such cases any weight applied to a bundle, as by a second similar bundle stacked thereon, is applied directly to the pipe sections and at localized or restricted positions. The pipes may thus be crushed or otherwise deformed.
In other instances it is known to form a rack of side-by-side pipes between a pair of bolsters and to surmount the first rack with a second rack of pipe sections, a third bolster and even a third rack of pipes not necessarily with a fourth bolster. The adjacent pipes are neither separated from each other nor are they separated from the bolsters. As a result, when such bundles are stacked, the lower bundles support the weight of upper bundles, and such weights can be considerable. Depending on pipe sizes and lengths, the dead weight of such bundles can be several tons per bundle. Damage is extremely likely under such practices. This is particularly true when the pipes may shift within the bundle. Straps can be broken and the pipe surfaces can be gouged or worn destroying protective coatings.